BLOUNT, Sqdn Ldr Christopher Charles LVO RAF 1925-2024

[Richard R]

He was s of Air Vice Marshal Charles Hubert Boulby BLOUNT CB OBE MC RAF 1893-1940 and Beatrice Joan LEMPRIERE 1892-1985. He m 1957 Hon Susan Victoria COBBOLD 1933-2021 d of 1st Baron COBBOLD 1904-87 and Lady Margaret Hermione Millicent BULWER-LYTTON 1905-2004 d of 2nd Earl of LYTTON 1876-1947 and Pamela Frances Audrey 1874-1971 d of Sir Trevor John Chichele CHICHELE-PLOWDEN KCSI 1846-1905 scion of the PLOWDEN gentry family of that name (and gs of Trevor John CHICHELEY-PLOWDEN 1783-1836) and his 1^st w (and 1^st cousin) Millicent Frances 1849-92 d of Gen Sir Charles John FOSTER KCB 1818-96 and as her 3^rd h Amelia Francies 1811-64 d of Trevor John CHICHELEY-PLOWDEN 1783-1836 and as her 1^st h Frances Lina ERSKINE c1785-1848 (Mrs Henry Parker), and had two sons and two daus.

Obit in the Times of 20 Dec 2024:

Christopher Blount obituary: bomber pilot who had a lucky escape

Equerry to the Queen and pilot who performed one of the first successful ejections from an inverted plane

… Blount was an equerry to the Queen between 1954 and 57. He accompanied the Queen on a tour of Nigeria in early 1956 and a state visit to Portugal the following year and enjoyed every minute of his time, especially at Sandringham and Balmoral. A lifelong friend of Princess Margaret, who was known for her admiration of RAF officers, Blount liked to say he was little more than a “spare hand” around the royal household, but was proud to have had the chance to serve the Queen in the early years of her reign.

Christopher Charles Blount was born in London in 1925 to a family that became steeped in flying and service in the RAF. His father, Charles, who had served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and was a founder member of the RAF, went on to become an air vice-marshal. He was killed in a flying accident at Mill Hill in 1940. Blount’s elder brother, John, was shot down in a Spitfire over the island of Texel on the coast of the Netherlands in 1941 and spent the remainder of the war as a PoW. He went on to become an air commodore and was captain of the Queen’s Flight before being killed in a helicopter crash in 1967. Blount’s mother, Beatrice Joan (née Lempriere), was originally from Melbourne in Australia. Her brother-in-law, Frank Debenham, was a geologist on Scott’s ill-fated 1910 Antarctic expedition. Blount, a relative of the singer James Blunt (who has changed the spelling of his surname)…

… In early 1957 Blount met Susan Cobbold, whose father, Cameron Cobbold, 1st Baron Cobbold, was governor of the Bank of England from 1949 to 1961 and lord chamberlain from 1963 to 1971. They married in November 1957, four weeks before his successful ejection from the Canberra. They made their home in a Jacobean manor house at Barkway in Hertfordshire and had four children: James is a former diplomat who works in business risk management; Ollie is a retired investment banker; Katie runs an interior design business; and Pammy is a travel journalist. Susan predeceased him three years ago…

Christopher Blount, RAF bomber pilot and banker, was born on February 6, 1925. He died on December 18, 2024, aged 99

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/christopher-blount-obituary-bomber-pilot-lucky-escape-zk2t9fx07